Death of a 3-year-old Maryland boy ruled homicide. Why do parents snap? Why do people not get help?

How sad. Proof, just because you can physically deliver a child does not mean you mentally capable of being a parent. R.I.P. Ji’Aire Lee. The story hit the news on May 22nd of this year. People called the police after witnessing a mother pushing a child on a swing for an unnatural period of time in La Plata park close to the Washington area. The 24 year old was pushing her dead 3 year old in a swing. Authorities ruled this a homicide as it was determined the Maryland boy died as result of dehydration and hypothermia. Why did this happen? Why don't people get help before harming others?

Everything about this story screams mental health issue. The father who was separated from the mother was actually seeking custody of the child because he claimed the mother was mentally ill. No sane person pushes a child for 44 hours!

People don't get help because they are mentally ill. My husband and I were just talking about these problems last night. Do you know the average wait time to get into a mental health clinic ranges from 1 month to 6 months just to get in to a first appointment? Then because of so many abusing meds they often won't prescribe meds for at least 2 - 4 appointments! So it could take a year for a person to get medicated to help their issues.

Our country is so backwards! So many people claim that they want to raise awareness of mental illness, yet when someone does something horrible BECAUSE they are mentally ill everyone screams "death penalty" or "hang them". Studies have shown that at least half of the prison population is mentally ill. Yet our justice system does nothing more than shove pills down their throats.

This story is a sad one, but even sadder is this is just one of MANY cases like it. Family, friends, and courts need to do a better job at evaluating the mental health of people.

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Absolutely. Ironically it was Reagan who gutted the mental health systems act that lead us down this spiral. He was shot by a mentally ill man. People stigmatize what they don't understand, but refuse to help fix the problems. sad :(

Parents, mothers in particular, are under so much pressure. I don't know why people snap to the point of killing their children. In this case the mother sounds like she has serious mental illness. Mothers do often reach out for help but go ignored.

A woman here in Los Angeles asked her mother to watch her kids for a couple of days because she was not doing well mentally. She said she felt hopeless. Her mom told her no so she dropped her kids off at the local sheriff's station with her mother's name and number on a piece of paper. Later the cops showed up at her house and assaulted her causing her death. It was later revealed that she had a history of mental illness.

Parents who aren't doing well are seen as whiney, lazy or incompetent. It's probably hard for them to find someone to sympathize. It takes a good ear to hear the difference between a venting session and a cry for help. American culture doesn't embrace the idea of extended family helping each other. Once you're 18 you're expected to be an instant adult and require no help from your parents or else you're doing something horribly wrong. Older parents would rather travel and enjoy their golden years than to babysit their grandchildren. And then after tragedy strikes the first thing they say is "You should have told me you needed help".

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Wow, that's absolutley heartbreaking. I agree that this sounds like severe mental illness.

As for why she didn't get help, well, that could be a number of things. Often when people are that sick they don't have the capability to recognize their behaviour and label it unhealthy. It's also possible that she thought/knew that if she admitted to being mentally ill that she'd lose custody of her son. I've spoken to women who have PND and don't even want to seek help for that for fear that someone will take their child away.

Just really very sad all around. :(

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